The Salvation Army paid some workers as little as $1 a week, suits claims
CBSN
The Salvation Army faces three federal lawsuits accusing it of exploiting marginalized people under the guise of offering therapy by paying as little as $1 a week for full-time work.
The suits, filed this week in Georgia, Illinois, and New York, accuse the philanthropic organization of flouting U.S. wage laws in its Adult Rehabilitation Centers (ARC) by paying well under the $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage or overtime. The Illinois and New York complaints also allege Salvation Army violated state wage laws.
"Instead of getting support on the road to stability and recovery, participants are forced to do grueling manual labor, live in meager conditions, make pennies in wages and give up government assistance that could improve their self-sufficiency," Michael Hancock, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, said in a statement.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.